Diversification pays off for some catastrophe bond funds
Some catastrophe bond funds have been able to moderate the impacts of broadly widening spreads through their diversification in recent weeks, with diversifying perils and regions experiencing less significant widening on outstanding cat bonds, so delivering better returns in May and June. We’ve been documenting the spread widening seen across the catastrophe bond market in […]
UCITS catastrophe bond funds see sluggish growth through H1
The assets under management (AUM) of the main UCITS catastrophe bond funds as a group only rose by 1.2% through the first-half of 2022, which goes some way to explain the restricted capacity of recent months. Having expanded rapidly from AUM of just under $5 billion at the end of April 2020, to more than $8 […]
Gallagher Re – Africa Re initiative may bring third-party capital to African risks
A new collaborative initiative between global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re and pan-African reinsurer Africa Re aims to strengthen countries against a broad range of climate, crisis and disaster risks and may utilise third-party reinsurance capital alongside traditional to augment capacity. The pair announced their protection gap focused initiative named ‘Accelerating action through scalable risk transfer […]
Catastrophe bond market hits new record size of $38.2bn
The global market for catastrophe bonds expanded by almost 2% during the second-quarter of 2022, as demand from sponsors drove strong issuance and helped to grow the outstanding cat bond market to $38.2 billion at June 30th 2022. Issuance of new catastrophe bonds reached $5.2 billion in the second-quarter of the year. You can download […]
Swiss ILS fund managers collaborating on ESG transparency
Artemis has learned that a group of Switzerland-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund managers have been collaborating to develop a data transparency proposal to help enhance environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the ILS market. After what we understand to be a few months of work, an initial ESG data request file template has now […]
Cat bond issuance strong in first half: Moody’s
Catastrophe bond issuance remained buoyant in the first half of this year, with $7.7 billion in new issuance following a record year in 2021, according to a report released Friday by Moody’s Investors Service Inc. Activity is expected to be robust for the remainder of 2022, Moody’s said. First-quarter new issuance totaled $3.2 billion, the […]
Alternative capital rebounds to record $97bn (again): Aon
For now the third time, alternative capital levels in reinsurance, largely in insurance-linked securities (ILS) formats, have rebounded to their previous high-level of $97 billion, according to Aon. That came against a shrinking of traditional reinsurance capital levels, as reinsurers were impacted by unrealised losses linked to their bonds, triggered by interest rate movements. Overall, […]
London workshop with Twelve Capital and African Risk Capacity
Climate change leads to a larger protection gap of which 96% is in the developing world* Twelve Capital held a workshop with high calibre market players to discuss how natural catastrophe risks can be transferred to financial markets for disaster relief in emerging markets. Against the backdrop of Impact Investing some highlights covered were: – […]
Mid-year collateralized reinsurance renewal rate rises higher than expected
Rate increases secured by insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and collateralized reinsurance vehicles at the mid-year reinsurance renewals are likely to be higher than had been expected when the negotiations began, sources have told Artemis. Typically, we don’t get any clear signs of price trajectory until after July 1st when the reinsurance broker reports are released, […]
ILS helps Hong Kong’s financial market diversify: Paul Chan
The passage of insurance-linked securities (ILS) legislation and now the successful issuance of a second catastrophe bond in the country, helps Hong Kong as it continues on its mission to further diversify its financial market and services sectors, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. With the recent completion of Hong Kong headquartered reinsurance firm Peak […]